Developmental Antecedents of Symptoms of Adult Separation Anxiety in Young Adult College

112 Pages·2017·2.17 MB·English

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Psychology Dissertations Department of Psychology
Summer 6-29-2010
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Noelle T. Santorelli
Georgia State University
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Santorelli, Noelle T., "Developmental Antecedents of Symptoms of Adult Separation Anxiety in Young
Adult College Students." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2010.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/1396270
This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Psychology at ScholarWorks @
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[email protected].
DEVELOPMENTAL ANTECEDENTS OF SYMPTOMS OF SEPARATION ANXIETY IN
YOUNG ADULT COLLEGE STUDENTS

by

NOËLLE T. SANTORELLI
Under the Direction of Diana L. Robins
ABSTRACT
Separation anxiety disorder (SAD) is rarely considered in adults presenting with
anxious symptomatology, but a growing body of evidence suggests that its symptoms
are experienced by a significant number of adults. Early parent-child relationships are
an especially important area of study for understanding SAD. Moreover, the attachment
style that is formed through early parent-child interactions may serve as a mediator to
later expression of symptoms of adult separation anxiety (ASA). Studying the early
parent-child relationship and perceived parenting styles in conjunction with individual
attachment styles will allow for a more systemic approach to understanding potential
risk factors for the development of ASA. Young adult college students may be
particularly vulnerable to ASA as they transition into college and away from primary
caregivers. This study investigates a mediational model with individual attachment style
serving as a mediator between perceived early parenting styles and symptoms of ASA
in 170 first-year college students between the ages of 18-20. As anticipated a large
percent of the sample endorsed clinically significant levels of symptoms of ASA (47%).
In addition, results utilizing bootstrapping analyses demonstrated that a perceived
indifferent parenting style had an indirect effect on symptoms of ASA, with the effect
occurring through an anxious attachment style. Support for the mediation model was
obtained when statistically controlling for perceived parenting styles of overcontrol and
abuse as well as confounding variables including age, sex, number of different families
lived with and emotionality domains of temperament (distress, anger, and fearfulness).
Highlighting the role of perceived parenting styles and attachment styles in the
development of symptoms of ASA will serve to establish potential family-based
interventions and help in the development of prevention programs. Examining
symptoms of ASA in young adult college students may result in the development of
university-based psycho-educational programs to help these students master a
challenging transitional period. This study is one of the first to explore a model that can
help to explain the developmental trajectory of symptoms of ASA. Future studies are
encouraged to consider symptoms of ASA when investigating anxious symptomatology
in adult populations.

INDEX WORDS: Separation Anxiety Disorder, Perceptions of parenting, Attachment
styles, Young adults, First-year college students, risk factors
DEVELOPMENTAL ANTECEDENTS OF SYMPTOMS OF SEPARATION ANXIETY IN
YOUNG ADULT COLLEGE STUDENTS

by

NOËLLE T. SANTORELLI

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the College of Arts and Sciences
Georgia State University
2010
Copyright by
Noëlle T. Santorelli
2010
DEVELOPMENTAL ANTECEDENTS OF SYMPTOMS OF SEPARATION ANXIETY IN
YOUNG ADULT COLLEGE STUDENTS

by

NOËLLE T. SANTORELLI

Committee Chair: Diana L. Robins

Committee: Page Anderson
Lisa Armistead
Chris Henrich
Erin McClure-Tone
Electronic Version Approved:

Office of Graduate Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Georgia State University
August 2010
iv

DEDICATION

To my husband, Anthony Santorelli, and his love, support, encouragement, tuition
payments, amazing tomato sauce, obsessive house cleaning, and great diaper duty
skills. You had faith in me when I did not; you had faith in this process when I did not.
You have been my rock and you have made the completion of my doctoral degree
possible.

To my beautiful son, Leonardo Charles Santorelli, whose laughter and spirit has given
me the strength to persevere and encourages me to live each and every day better than
the one before. You are my angel.
v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge my wonderful family. Mom, I thank you for instilling in me
early on the importance of hard work and a love of learning. Your respect for education
and the pursuit of knowledge made even daily activities exciting lessons from which
something could always be learned – you are a true teacher. I would also like to thank
you for caring about my feet when no one else did and like only a mother would.

The late Charles Turini, I thank you for believing in me and loving me from the start.
Your diligence, patience, quiet strength, and belief in academic excellence is a constant
whisper in my ear.

Claire and Faye Turini, my sisters. Claire, thank you for being able to calm me down
when nothing else can. Thank you for not worrying about the same things I worry about,
living life without a master plan, and showing me how to take time to live life in the
moment. Faye, thank you for worrying about the same things I worry about and seeing
the value in living life with a master plan. I could always count on you to commiserate
about perfectionism, the hoops involved in this process, and to understand the
satisfaction that results from a job well done.

The Santorelli Family, particularly Lenny and Lana Santorelli. I thank you for your
encouragement, interest in the process and for knowing when to tell me to slow down.
vi

Thank you for raising your son to be the man that held my hand throughout this entire
process regardless of how challenging it could be at times.

All of my wonderful friends, for their cheerleading and acceptance of my tendency to
disappear into work for months at a time. I would particularly like to thank Amanda
Woods. Thank you Amanda, for working with me at the Panera closer to my home, for
showing me that statistics don’t bite, for babysitting, for believing I could work at Grady,
for your efficiency in everything you do, for putting things in perspective for me, for
surprising me at my dissertation defense, and for simply being the most wonderful friend
in the world.

Finally, I would like to thank my committee members who offered their expertise and
time for this project. A special thanks to Dr. Diana L. Robins, my committee chair and
long-time graduate school mentor. This work would not have been possible had she not
encouraged and allowed me the freedom to pursue research interests that were quite
different from her own. She has been with me on my journey as a doctoral student from
my first assessment case, first poster presentation, master’s thesis research,
competency exams, and personal struggles through the completion of my dissertation.
She has always been a constant teacher and mentor both academically and personally.
She is a true role model in her ability to balance scientific research, clinical applications
and a strong family life. I am thankful that I have had this opportunity to learn from her.
Thank you Dr. Page Anderson, Dr. Lisa Armistead, Dr. Chris Henrich, and Dr. Erin
McClure-Tone for agreeing to serve on my committee.
vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………….v
LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................x
LIST OF FIGURES.....................................................................................................xi
Introduction..............................................................................................................1
Separation Anxiety Disorder.............................................................................1
Separation Anxiety in Adults............................................................................3
History of Attachment Theory...........................................................................7
Temperament and Attachment Style…………………………………………….11
Adult Attachment............................................................................................12
Adult Attachments and Psychopathology....................................................14
Parenting Style and Family Environment.....................................................15
Separation Anxiety in College Populations..................................................18
Specific Aims...................................................................................................20
Method....................................................................................................................23
Participants.......................................................................................................23
Procedure..........................................................................................................24
Measures...........................................................................................................24
Demographic data form...........................................................................24
Adult separation anxiety..........................................................................25
Attachment style......................................................................................26
Perceived parenting style........................................................................28